There are some 20,000 separate species of bees worldwide, all of which provide a greater or lesser pollination service on which we depend for food. In the UK, there are around 270 species, which may come as a surprise to some, for whom Honey and Bumblebees comprise ‘our’ bee population: in fact, there is one species of Honey Bee, 24 species of bumblebees and around 250 species of solitary bees, many of which, in spite of their name, live in colonies. There are mason bees, mud bees, plasterer bees, leafcutter bees, mining bees, scissor bees and more, including the wonderfully-named Pantaloon Bee.
Some bee species are more abundant and widespread than others, with Honey Bees and the more common bumblebees most numerous; the Shrill Carder bee and Giant Yellow bumblebee the rarest. Bees exhibit the most extraordinary behaviours, perhaps none more so than the Red-tailed Mason Bee Osmia bicolor, the female of which uses empty snail shells for nesting. Having found a suitable shell she will turn it to a position that prevents rain getting in (quite something, given their relative sizes) and lay up to five eggs in it, each in a separate brood chamber partitioned with chewed grass and soil, each chamber stocked with pollen and nectar. She then seals the shell nest with thisnpaste, and camouflages the nest, carrying in long pieces of grass and twig and pieces of dead leaf. She will repeat this five or six times. The eggs hatch and pupate in the shell, emerging in the following spring. You can find out more about this incredible insect, and watch a video of its amazing behaviour here at BuzzAboutBees.net https://www.buzzaboutbees.net/red-tailled-mason-bee-osmia-bicolor.html.
Bumblebees were given the generic name Bombus in 1802, based on the Latin word for buzzing or humming. The name ‘bumblebee’ is itself a compound of ‘bumble’ and ‘bee’, where ‘bumble’means to hum or buzz. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) tells us the first use of ‘bumblebee’ was recorded in 1530, but that it was predated by the word ’humblebee’, which was first recorded in 1450, and which clearly remained in common use for centuries; even Charles Darwin in On the origin of species (1859), like many of his scientific contemporaries, called them ‘humblebees’. Writing in the Guardian in 2010, Richard Jones suggested that “Darwin would have called them humblebees because, as they fly, they hum.”
Writing on the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website, Katy Malone says: “So, when did we even start calling them bumblebees? It’s probably much more recent than you think. Up until around 1910 they were known as humblebees. By the 1950s we called them bumblebees, possibly thanks to a story by Beatrix Potter who wrote a story which included Babbity Bumble who caused trouble by making mossy nests in the back garden of Mrs Tittlemouse. Naughty Bumble!”
Incidentally, back in the 18th century a bumblebee was known as a ‘dumbledor’, thought to be the inspiration for J K Rowling’s Professor Dumbledore. (“dumble” probably imitating the sound of these insects, while “dor” meant “beetle”. Webster Dictionary 1913).
Bumblebees are much-researched insects, with the latest revelation being that they “can teach others to master complex tasks, and display a level of social learning traditionally thought exclusive to humans”.
An article on the BBC News website here describes the latest research from Queen Mary University London which saw Buff-tailed bumblebees Bombus terrestris learn to solve problems and pass their knowledge onto others. The article states ”It is the first time scientists have seen this behaviour in insects” and that “Researchers say this reveals evidence of a kind of bee ‘culture’”.
Queen Mary University London clearly has an affinity with bumblebees. In 2017, BBC News reported that “a species of bumblebee is proving that, despite having a brain the size of a poppy seed, they can also play football…” A link to the article is available here.
A BEE … OR NOT A BEE?
There are plenty of other insects that can quite easily be mistaken for bees: hoverflies, wasps, sawflies, and more. One particular example, described by the Natural History Museum as “a tiny, fluffy, flying narwhale” can be found flying now: the Bee-Fly. Although it resembles a bee, it is in fact a fly (it has only one pair of wings, unlike bees which have two). What it does have though, and what makes it look so distinctive, is a long lance-like appendage carried out permanently in front. To some this resembles a sting, but it is actually a proboscis which it uses to probe deeply into flowers for nectar, flowers that many other bees cannot reach.
Like the Mason Bee described earlier, a female Bee-Fly has its own idiosyncratic approach to egg-laying. She moves her abdomen to coat her eggs in sand and gravel before flying over a solitary bee’s nest where she hovers and flicks out the eggs, hoping they will land and hatch near or, ideally, in the nest. On hatching, Bee-Fly larvae parasitise the bee’s nest, eating both bee grubs and the pollen left for them; as part of this process, they go through a second metamorphosis, which is very rare in insects.
You can find out more about these fascinating creatures here .https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/bee-flies-cute-bee-mimic-with-a-dark-side.html
Chris Overton